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Design Changes For The World Trade Center Transit Hub

Posted by
on July 2nd, 2008 at 4:36 am

The biggest transit related story of the day is the design changes that will come to the World Trade Center Transit Hub. Here are some reports about it starting with this one from the New York Times’ David W. Dunlap:

It was to have been an audacious gesture in an already daring design. As envisioned by the architect Santiago Calatrava, the enormous counterpoised wings forming the rooftop of the World Trade Center Transportation Hub were to have opened almost 50 feet wide to the sky, in fine weather and on each anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

“On a beautiful summer day,” Mr. Calatrava said, “the building can work not as a greenhouse but as an open space.”

And on each Sept. 11, he said, the rooftop could open again, “giving us the sense of unprotection.”

The idea of an entire building in movement was startling, but it would not have been the first kinetic work by Mr. Calatrava, who is a sculptor and an engineer. The winglike sunscreen at the Milwaukee Museum of Art opens and closes twice daily, and has become a civic attraction in its own right.

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2 & F Train Service Alerts

Posted by
on July 1st, 2008 at 6:22 pm

The MTA has posted service alerts for the 2 Train & F Train. The service alerts state:

Due to a customer requiring medical assistance at the Nevins Street Station, selected Brooklyn College-bound 2 Train trains are running on the 5 Train line from the 149th Street-Grand Concourse Station to the Nevins Street Station.

Please expect delays in service on the 2 Train and 3 Train trains.

In addition, due to signal problems at the Smith-9th Streets Station, please expect delays in service on the F Train trains at this time.

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0

LIRR Increases Service For Independence Day

Posted by
on July 1st, 2008 at 4:40 pm

LIRR train idle at the Ronkonkoma station.
LIRR train idle at the Ronkonkoma station. Resized photo courtesy of Eye On Transit

The Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) has issued a press release about the planned service increases for the Independence Day holiday. Here are the details courtesy of the MTA:

The MTA Long Island Rail Road will provide additional early afternoon service from Penn Station for customers planning to leave work early on Thursday, July 3 for the start of the Independence Day holiday. The four additional Hamptons/Montauk summer service trains that normally run on Fridays will operate on Thursday, July 3rd.

The LIRR will be operating on a Saturday schedule on Friday, July 4th.

Eight extra trains will depart Penn Station between 1:47 PM and 3:48 PM on July 3. The extra service will include: three trains on the Port Jefferson Branch; three on the Babylon Branch; one on the Port Washington Branch to Great Neck; one on the Far Rockaway Branch as detailed below:

Extra Train Service from Penn Station, Thursday, July 3

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LIRR Accident Update

Posted by
on July 1st, 2008 at 12:08 am

Yesterday evening I had the unfortunate task of writing about 2 separate accidents of a LIRR train running over & killing a male. Steve Ritea of Newsday has posted an updated report about the accidents:

Two men were killed in unrelated accidents on Long Island Rail Road tracks Monday morning, MTA Police said, when a 19-year-old fell from a platform at Lynbrook station and the body of a 57-year-old was found between Central Islip and Ronkonkoma.

The victims were identified as Patrick J. Gordon of Rockville Centre and Dennis Pankavich of Central Islip.

“Everybody’s numb,” said Gordon’s uncle, Gerard Gordon of Westbury. “It’s every parent’s worst nightmare. … He was a real good kid.”

Patrick Gordon and a friend had just gotten off a train from Long Beach, where Gerard Gordon said they had attended a party, when Patrick fell from the platform onto the tracks around 3:30 a.m. as another eastbound train was headed into Lynbrook station, Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police Sgt. Kim Riley said.

The train was traveling at about 30 mph when the engineer saw Gordon fall onto the tracks. The engineer applied the emergency brakes and blew the horn, but the train was unable to avoid hitting the man, Riley said. Gordon was pronounced dead at the scene.

Riley said police were investigating whether alcohol played any role in Gordon’s fall. His friend was not injured, she said.

In the other accident, Pankavich was lying motionless on the tracks about 2,500 feet east of Central Islip station when he was struck by a westbound train around 11:18 a.m., Riley said.

She said the train was traveling at about 70 mph.

Police are investigating whether Pankavich touched the electrified third rail, which powers trains, before he was struck.

Pankavich’s family could not be reached for comment.

Gerard Gordon said his nephew had just completed his freshman year at Iona College in New Rochelle, where he was a liberal-arts major and played rugby.

A graduate of South Side High in Rockville Centre, Patrick had returned to his summer job at Jordan Lobster Farms in Island Park. “He was a great kid,” owner Steve Jordan said. “In the last year, he had really matured.”

Patrick has two sisters, ages 16 and 11, and a brother who is 14. “They’re very close,” Gerard Gordon said. “And my nephew is like my brother’s best friend.”

A wake will be held for Patrick J. Gordon Tuesday, 7 to 9 p.m., and Wednesday, 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m., at Macken Mortuary, Rockville Centre. A funeral will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday in St. Agnes Cathedral, Rockville Centre, followed by burial in St. Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale.

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7

2 Men Dead After Being Hit By LIRR Trains

Posted by
on June 30th, 2008 at 7:16 pm

LIRR train departing the Woodside station.
LIRR train departing the Woodside station. Resized photo courtesy of Eye On Transit

Today was not a good day for the Long Island Rail Road as 2 men were killed in separate incidents after being struck by trains. Joseph Mallia of Newsday filed this report:

Two men were hit by Long Island Rail Road trains in unrelated incidents Monday morning, LIRR officials said.

A 3:31 a.m. accident at a Lynbrook station left a 19-year-old Rockville Centre man, Patrick J. Gordon, dead after he tripped or slipped from the platform and fell in front of an oncoming train, officials said. The death did not appear to be a suicide, officials said.

The second accident involved a man described as “an unauthorized person on the tracks” who was hit by an LIRR commuter train east of the Central Islip station Monday morning, railroad officials said. The exact time of the accident was not available, but officials said the train involved was the 11:11 a.m. westbound from Ronkonkoma.

The condition of the man in the Central Islip accident was not immediately available, but it resulted in the Suffolk police sending for the county medical examiner’s office — an apparent indication that this incident, too, was fatal, officials said.

MTA police are investigating, and it’s not clear yet whether the cases would be turned over to Suffolk and Nassau homicide detectives, railroad officials said.

Rush-hour commuter rail service was not affected by the Lynbrook accident.

Commuter trains on the Ronkonkoma branch of the LIRR were delayed between Central Islip and Ronkonkoma. The 11:11 a.m. train, scheduled to arrive at Penn Station at 12:35 p.m., was held at the accident scene. Also delayed was an eastbound train, the 10:15 a.m. from Penn Station, due in Ronkonkoma at 11:40 a.m.

I feel bad for the first victim as it seems his death was an accident. However I do not feel bad for someone being hit by a train when they had no business being on the tracks to begin with. When will people learn that railroad tracks are not a place to be on unless you are qualified to be there? I am sick of this stupidity causing damage not only to the service people depend on but the operator as well.

xoxo Transit Blogger

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